Container



1932- w. KUERSCHNER ET AL CONTAINER Filed June 23 1951 W23 as Patented Aug. 23, 1932 STATES me WILLIAM KUEB-SCHNER, or PITTSBURGH, AND FLOYD A; i-rrennn. or sheaves,

PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNORS SYLVANIA Application filcd. June 23,

structure within a container, capable of being used with facility and capable of afiording a package of minimum bulkand of adequate security. It concerns articles of such tapered or offset shape that, when two of such articles are placed in contact, one right side-up and the other up side down, the cross-section of the assembly is less than the cross-sections of the two placed in contact when both are right side up. The fragile nature of'the articles to which the invention ordinarily is applied requires that they be separated by partitions or other cushioning or abrasion preventing protection when within'a container.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing. Figs. Iand II are views in elevation of two sheets of press-board or other suitable material cut to shape and capable of assembly within a container to constitute an embodiment of the invention. The two sheets are in these two figures shown in proper relative positions, in that their upper edges and their lower edges are simultaneously either top or bottom edges. Fig. III is a view in horizontal section of the partition assembly within the container, the container being empty. Fig. IV is a view corresponding in other respects to Fig. III but showing the container partially filled with bottles. Fig. V is a view in vertical section, on the plane indicated at VV, Fig. IV.

The invention has to do with the packaging of articles (ordinarily fragile) of tapered or offset shape and of larger cross-section at one end than at the other. A bottle, empty or filled, is such an article, and the drawing shows, typically, the packaging of bottles.

The container 1 may be understood to be of suitable length, width, and height to accommodate a quantity of vertically arranged bottles B, B packed within it in a single tier. (One tier is shown; manifestly, the container might be proportioned to receive more than one superposed tier.) In packing bottles in partitioned containers, it has been the practice to subdivide the space within the container by means of a partition structure made To H. J. HEINZ COMPANY, 5A conron'e'rron on PENN- oonrAmnn 1931. Serial No. 546,192.T

up of sheets of suitable material slotted and fitted tightly together, to form columnar cells of fixed and uniform size from top to bottom, and of such size as to receive with snug fit the bottles to be packed. The cell, accordingly, must be throughout of the maximum size. By the invention to be described, equally as great or greater security is ob tained, by the shaping of the cells .to the article contained in it, and by the more uniform distribution of weight throughout the container furthermore, the'bulk of the pack age is reduced in two dimensions, in proportion as the cross-section of the assembly of bottlespacked alternately right side up and up side down is less than when all are packed rightside'up. I

Bottles are sometimespacked by thrusting them individually into conical or cylindrical shields, pokes, or wrappersof straw, excelsior, or other cushioning material, and then placing them in a container in alternate rightside-upand upside-down positions. That mode of packing, however, while offering two sheets 2 and 3 are slotted at 21 and 31. r

The depth of these two designated slots added together is as great as height of the sheets 2 and 3, to the end that when the sheets are fitted together the assembly shall be of that same height. Such fitting together of the slotted sheets we characterize interdigitation. The invention'is found informing the slots, 21 and 31, of a width greaterthan the thickness of the material, and in providing, in

addition to slots 21 and 31,- other auxiliary slots, 22 -and 32. These other slots extend from" the opposite edges of partition sheets 2 and, 3 to the interveningnecks 23 and 33;

they are aligned with the center lines ofslots' 21 and 31, and they also are of width greater than the thickness of. the material. As par- 1 tition structures of this sort have ordinarily been made, thewidth of the slots 21 and 31 hasbeen as great as the thickness of the sheet material. It has been disadvantageous to form them to greater width.- The slots as they are formed in the practice of this invention are wider than the sheet material'is thick, and of such width as is necessary to accommodate the article being packed As.

,shown in FigsIILIV, and V the slots. are

three "timesthe thickness of the sheet material, and. such proportioning is adequate to the packaging of the articles shown. In the assembly th'e'auXiliary-slot22 (32) of one partition co-operates with interdigitating' slot 31 (21)" of the companion partition to define 1 a vacant spaces (Fig. III), and in consequence, the component members of'the partition structure assembled Within the container may be tipped onerelatively to another, and eachcolumnar cell may thus be brought to tapered shape, having at its two ends the cross-sectional areas of the squares m and n,' indicated in'broken lines in Fig. III; and turning to'Figs. IV and V, it will be. perceived that thus the cells of the assembly may be made alternately tapering, in chequered pattern (as seen from above) and that bottles may be packed (as shown in Figs. IV and V) in alternate erect and inverted positions,'with minimum lossof space and, consequently, with maximum security, sideration offFig. V will show .that,'whereas in the container of the invention, the wide slots in the partition pieces permit the partition cells to adjustthemselves to the shape of the bottle to the extent that the bases of adjacent bottles can overlap in vertical lines approximately one-half the difference be.- tween the greatest and the least cross section of the bottle, less the thickness of the partition, if the cells were of uniform dimensions throughout their heights the bottles would necessarily stand apart at an interval as great as the thickness of the sheet material thus the Conposite edges inwardly and by such'slotting' 'interdigitated, one of said walls being PIO'.

violed'with an auxiliary slot formed opposite toand inalignment with the interdigitating slot first alluded to and in the assembly cooperating with the interdigitating slot of the other partition wall to define a vacant space of columnar form, whereby one of the walls may be tipped relatively to the other.

i 2. The structure of claim 1, all of the slots being in width at leastthree times as great as the thickness of the sheet material.

3. A container including in its structure two partition walls of sheet-material equal in height, lying in angularlyextending planes, the two said walls being slotted from opposite edges inwardly,: each with one of two slots pl an auxiliary slot formedjopposite to-and in alignment with the interdigitating slot first named and in the assembly co-operating with I the interdigitating slot of the other partition wall to define a vacant space of columnar form, whereby'one of the walls may be tipped relatively to the other. 7

' In testimony whereof we havehereunto set our hands. r

WILLIAM KUERSCHNER. FLOYD A. I-IIGERD; 1

gainin length andwidth of container and in security by the better fit of the packing around the bottle.

1 Incidentally, it should be'remarked that the tipping of the partition sheets incident to the practice of the invention does not necessarily involve any distortion of the sheet from its plane-surfaced extent; and,

while such distortion is ordinarily desired (of Fig. V) the distortion is not localized in the relatively weak necks 2'3 and 33, but is distributed along the relatively strong marginalportions of the sheets.

It has, been said that the sheetmaterial may be paper. It ordinarily will be the cellular material built up of alternate layers of smooth and corrugated paper; but'it need not be paper; it may be any sheet material having the desired elasticity. w

' We claim as our invention: 

